Mars and Venus Discovered by the Gods :: Joachim Wtewael

The painting by the Dutch artist Joachim Wtewael shows a well-known mythological story. The full title of the painting is “Mars and Venus Discovered by the Gods of Olympus”. According to the myths of the ancient Greeks (and Romans), all the gods on Olympus were in love with Venus (Greek Aphrodite), but as fate has willed, she became Vulcan’s wife (Greek Hephaestus) - the most skilful, old and ugly got of all gods. This marriage apparently predestined a full of love nature of goddess Venus. In many myths states that she gave birth to children from other gods, including Mars, Mercury and Dionysus.